I hope to hang up the spikes soon and have planned
on 3000.00 a month income. That consists of:
1. 1k from SS for me
2. 1k from wifes SS
3. 1k from savings ( 300k saved with 4% withdrawl rate)
$36,000 a year to "git r done", live in Wisconsin were
cost of living is not terrible. Also believe that cost will
eventually come down as more people retire/lose jobs/
etc.. Lets face it, who can really afford 40K cars if you are retired or unemployed... Thoughts

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Seriously, I think your plan is fine. I lived in Wisconsin for 11 years, and while I did not care for the politics,
the COL was okay. Anyway, your plan is similar to ours
except we will never see $36,000 per year.

36K a year is possible however there should be room for inflation, the unexpected & just having fun during the ENTIRE retirement. It also depends on how much of the 36K is currently leftover after expenses & whether some of the expenses can be decreased as others rise

I received a severance for over a year after I retired & deposited the entire amount every 2 weeks in Ingdirect. I retired to live on a pension - the severance was temporary. I intended on making an investment in real estate or stocks. The money was liquid it started looking like a 2005 corvette or mustang gt. Luckily I found an ad in the Sunday paper for a 7 month 3.1% cd. Something needed to be parked & it wasn't a corvette or mustang.

I keep my EMT-B certification up-to-date because I enjoy volunteering for the Red Cross, and, less altruistically, because it's easy to find full-time work with benefits in the EMS field Which is to say that if I find myself in a pinch, within a couple of weeks I can get an ambulance job that carries a subsistence wage and medical insurance.

(Many interesting sidebar items about the healthcare system deleted.)

But it's that "subsistence wage" thing that makes this thread stand out. My wife and I are planning to ER to a rural town in the Southeast where the municipal EMTs start at $28K per year. Before taxes.

Which is obviously less than $3K per month. Yet these people still do OK; I've talked to some of them. They get married, rent an apartment, have a couple of kids, drive a decent car, go fishing, etc.

In my retirement planning I have SS increases being canceled by rising medicare costs.

I have several accounts I can access quickly for the unexpected & the expected. The primary account is nicknamed " Next BIG Thing " where about $400 is maintained. If I know in advance that I need more I make transfers from weekly spending money. Other accounts that can be used are " HouseHold Repairs ", " LongTerm Bills " as well as " Vacations "

Unexpected items are not always unpleasant. Sometimes its a really good sale or having fun. When I " borrow " part of the $400 I know I have to replace it in about a month from pocket money.

Will the principal remain the same or decrease with the 7% SWR & will the 7% vary?

But it's that "subsistence wage" thing that makes this thread stand out. *My wife and I are planning to ER to a rural town in the Southeast where the municipal EMTs start at $28K per year. *Before taxes.

Which is obviously less than $3K per month. *Yet these people still do OK; I've talked to some of them. *They get married, rent an apartment, have a couple of kids, drive a decent car, go fishing, etc.

It's interesting to see what people can get by on, eh?Ed

No doubt you will be fine Ed. OTOH, many people want more than a working class SOL in the rural south. So for them, it would maybe not be a good plan.

We could live on 1200/month SS and 370/month CD
interest and not break a sweat. But, that's just us.
We don't get anal about it. We just know how far we
could cut back, which provides a lot of security. On a
related issue.............today on the Rush Limbaugh
program, they spent a lot of time talking with people
who were into dumpster diving. These were not bums,
but people with money who understood there was gold
in the dumpsters. We don't do that, but we could.
Getting something for nothing is a rush! You just need
to have the right attitude. Same with your lifestyle.
If most of us could cut back 50%, we would still be in
the top 1% world wide. Think about it.

Rush Limbaugh is a great man. He has brains and guts,
qualities which are in short supply these days. My
main area of disagreement is with his eternal optimism.
He thinks the leftist drift can be fixed. I do not.
Only time will tell which of us is right.

The only, absolutely only, reason I haven't joined my husband in early retirement is the big unknown of where health care costs are going. He thinks that a million dollars worth of assets basically should be considered for health care and our other expenses come from the rest.

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